Once there is competition, customers have a choice. Once customers have a choice, companies need to consider, “Why should they buy from us?” In today’s environment, hyper-competition comes into play. 

Hyper-competition stems from customers wanting the products or services faster, cheaper, and in their way. This fundamental quantitative and qualitative shift in competition requires a company to change on an unprecedented scale. A company must constantly reinvent more efficient organizational strategies to be at the forefront of the leading edge. The competitive rules of the game are in such flux that only the most adaptive and agile companies will survive. 

A sustainable competitive advantage is the focal point of a company’s strategy. This focus allows the maintenance and improvement of a company’s competitive position in the market, and it truly is the leading edge company. 

Leadership Positioning – On the Edge! 
When leadership positioning and instant association are understood, it’s time to establish your competitive edge advantage. To do this, determine what the competition is doing in the same marketplace and what their competitive strengths and weaknesses are. 

Getting started with competitive advantage research: 

• Who are the competitors? List five to ten who do the best job of attracting the customers you want to attract. 
• What threats do the competitors pose? 
• What are the profiles of the competitors? (i.e., an in-depth description of the competitor’s background, finances, products, market segments, facilities, staff, and strategies) 
• What are their objectives? • What strategies are the competitors pursuing and how successful are these strategies? 
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors? 
• How do their prices compare to yours? 
• How are they doing overall in the market share? (i.e., percentage or portion of the total available market share or market segment) 
• How do you plan to compete with your competitors?
• Do the competitors offer better quality products and/or services? 
• How are you uniquely suited to compete with the competitors? 
• What customer needs and preferences are you competing to meet? 
• What are the similarities and differences between the competitors’ products and/or services and yours? 
• How are the competitors likely to respond to any changes in the way you do business? 

You can probably think of many more pieces of information about the competitors that would be useful. However, an important challenge in competitor analysis is working out how to obtain competitor information that is reliable, up to date, and available legally! 

Step 1: Identify main competitors and compile questions when undertaking competitor analysis 

How do you stack up against your competition? Know and understand main competitors. Secondly, how effective are the competitors in the marketplace and what is your competitive standing in the target markets? Once you can answer these things about the main competitors, you can determine how to compete better. 

Step 2: Evaluate the competitions’ positioning as well as their major strengths and weaknesses 

Put this on a grid and evaluate on a consistent basis, whatever that may be for your company. If you have an annual strategic plan, then do this annually. If you are analyzing data quarterly, then evaluate quarterly. 

Step 3: Determine your company’s competitive effectiveness and decide where you rank among the competitors listed in Step 1 

When evaluating your own business, be brutally honest about weaknesses and list the strengths that are perceived as strengths by the marketplace. It may be surprising to see how much more insight this evaluation of your business will provide after an inside reality check on your own business is performed. 

To be a successful company, the inside reality MUST match the outside perception of potential customers. Competitive analysis is an important part of the overall strategic planning process. Why should you bother to analyze competitors? Some businesses think it is best to ignore the competition and get on with their own plans of running their company. Other companies become obsessed with tracking the actions of competitors (often using underhanded or illegal methods). Some businesses are happy simply to track the competition, copy their moves, and react to changes. Do you know as much about the competition as they might know regarding your company? 

Competitor analysis has several important roles in your overall strategic planning:

• Helps owners and managers understand their competitive advantages and disadvantages. 
• Helps generate a true understanding of competitors’ past and present, and (most importantly) an educated guess toward their future strategies. 
• Provides an informed basis to develop competitive strategies to achieve an advantage for future growth. 
• Helps forecast the returns that may be made from future investments. (i.e., How will competitors respond to a new product or pricing strategy?) 

When I first went into business, it was important to me, as the founder and CEO to differentiate our business from the competition. In the beginning, it was easy, but as years have passed and we have developed a brand identity and won many national awards, I have watched competitors go after the same awards, say the same things, and copy our innovation. A very dear business friend of mine, Matt Rix of Mattrixx.com, once said, “It’s always safer and easier to be in the number two position in your industry. This is because you can follow and copy what has already been successful without assuming the risk of potential failure.” 

The downside of this is that you will never be able to capture or control a market share by being a follower. Followers are never leaders. You have the choice to be the innovator or the follower but you cannot be both. It took me a long time to realize what this meant. 

What he was saying was that being the innovator is great in the mind-set of our potential customers, but our competition can sit back and watch how we innovate and see what works and what does not and then copy what we do without taking the risk. Always look to be the innovator, even though being a risk taker can be stressful at times. Seek to be, and to be known as, the business others copy. 

 DJ Heckes, 
Author & CEO EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing
www.fullbrainmarketing.com  

Share  Bookmark this on Delicious

Last week’s blog discussed Leading Your Company and Your People to a Higher Place. EXHIB-IT! believes in developing a culture where our company manages and grows our business through investing the time to mentor employees to build a strong sustainable company to compete in this fast-paced competitive environment. 

This does not happen overnight. As stated before, to create a high performance team takes focus, drive and a lot of work, but the pay off is valuable to the company and to the employees. Having internal working relationships with a positive focus on an outcome is key. Working relationships that do work are characterized by open and respectful communication that builds accountability and trust. These three characteristics go hand in hand. 

Many companies think there is not much you can do to improve the quality of communication, accountability or trust within a company and it is accepted to let things be status quo. People either possess the qualities of accountability or trust or they do not, right? Wrong. You can make a difference. 

These principles of working relationships are the framework within which our company’s managers and employees relate to each other on the job. Without these basic principles, confusion about what an employee should or should not be doing arises. The five basic principles for working relationships were discussed in last week’s blog. http://www.fullbrainmarketing.com/_blog/blog/ 

If anything is identified through the five principles of working relationships to work on to gain better communication and understanding, try using what we do at EXHIB-IT!, the Problem Resolution System. 

1. The Problem Resolution System. In personal development arena, accountability to change and grow lies squarely on the employee’s own shoulders. As manager can suggest options and offer guidance and support, but employee must make the commitment and be willing and able to change. If personal development issue, requires level of empathy and sensitivity by manager. Be direct, but combine directness with caring and a lot of room for employee to show their weakness yet still maintain dignity. Demand excellence, but provide unconditional acceptance and kindness. Look at employees as “work in progress” and be able to invest yourself in their development. 
• Identify issue or problem to be addressed. State it directly and clearly.
• Get acknowledgment of the issue and need to address it. If manager raising issue, employee must willingly “admit” issue  exists and that something needs to be done about it. If employee is one who brings up issue to table – congratulations! Your  relationship is on right track. 
• Discuss the ideas you both may have about what is underlying the issue. Employee talks first. When employee done,  acknowledge and respond to what they said and add any insights you may have. 
• Get employee’s commitment to deal with the issue. This is the second decision point for employee (first is to acknowledge  issue). Without agreement, there cannot be movement forward! Refer to Primary Aim to see how this contributes to what employee  wants for themselves. Motivation is self-initiated.
• Create a plan to deal with the issue. Use Key Frustrations process to reveal true nature and impact of problem and uncover a  systems approach to resolving it. Whether a “systems solution” or “personal development plan” have employee document plan in  writing and give it to your manager for review. Plan is to include overall result aimed for, benchmarks or specific steps for  achieving result(s), reporting loops, standards that describe how benchmarks will be done, time frames that define exactly when  each benchmark will be complete, and consequences for failure to keep commitment to improve the situation. Written plan is vital.  Without it, ability to follow up will be compromised. If plan cannot be completed within scope of meeting, either have employee  continue working on it on his own, or schedule additional time to work on it together. (Work on separate sheet of paper for this  area.) 
• Get employee’s commitment to implementing the plan. This is employee’s final decision point of meeting. If he/she won’t make  commitment, either the issue will NOT be resolved or another alternative must be brought to the table. Do not leave unresolved. 
• Follow up on the plan. After meeting over and written plan complete, follow up with employee within short time to discuss how  progress is coming. 
• Re-evaluate the employee’s performance and results. *Determine if plan is effective and if desired results are being achieved.  Is plan being followed? How is employee responding to it? Employee attaining on consistent basis the agreed upon standards?  Teaching employees skill of systemic and results-oriented thinking and problem solving not only makes them more valuable and  productive, but also gives them a strategy they can use in many areas of their lives. Creating a motivational environment where  people can learn what it takes to become a more effective person, not just a more effective worker. 

 2. Self-Perception Enhancement. People yearn to feel good about themselves and need more messages to help get in touch about reality about what is wonderful about themselves. People need to develop a healthy mistrust of their negative conclusions. Learn and practice “self-perception enhancement” techniques to reinforce employee’s positive perceptions of himself or herself. *Four ways to do. 
• Offer employees unconditional acceptance. No matter what they do, you will always value and support them. Behavior may not  be acceptable at times but can change behavior. Essential qualities are constant that I honor and respect. 
• Insist on excellence. If employees know this, sends message that “I am capable of it and I’m too good a person to settle for  less.” 
• Define and enforce standards. Standards enable understanding exactly how they are being evaluated and what kinds of  behavior are both acceptable and unacceptable. Provides a sense of security and independence. 
• Praise employees’ positive attributes rather than performance or results. Tell employees you appreciate them for not only  work they do, but for person they are made that result possible. Give specific feedback and not generalized feedback and focus on  attributes they possess to achieve the dramatic results. Also pass along positive feedback from others including coworkers,  clients, etc. Effects of low self-esteem produce self-defeating behavior people resort to when they do not value themselves,  consciously or unconsciously. “Cynical attitude” are most often seen in people who, deep inside, do not value themselves. Maybe  never taught. People with prevailing negative tendencies will rarely reach their fullest potential and will find ways to sabotage their  own and company’s performance causing results in business to suffer. People with prevailing view of themselves as positive can  be counted on to do their best and face new and challenging situations with confidence, courage and optimism and make kind of  contribution that helps company and themselves grow and flourish. 

 3. Bringing Mentoring to Your People.
 • Adapt the systems in this process to your business. Use tools developed in your company and strongly advise against leaving  anything out of the model provided. • Set the due date for implementing Employee Development Meetings. Be consistent and  maintain meetings. May phase into company-wide. 
• Train Managers. This is critical to success of implementation of this process and business. Every manager must implement it in  the same way, week after week, year after year, until you decide to change it. It is a system in your business, part of the inviolable  rules of your game. 
• Conduct first Employee Development Meeting with all employees. Mangers conduct this first meeting when employees are first  hired. Managers conduct meeting with existing employees that report to them. 
• Conduct regular, ongoing Employee Development Meetings with all employees. Schedule weekly, bi-weekly or monthly  employee development meetings. Most cases, weekly suggested but may be too often for field sales personnel. 

 4. Everyone Wins. By adopting “manager as mentor” model, agendas and techniques for Employee Development, you can free your people to move beyond their limitations and help them grow to be their absolute best. All of these benefits will come back many-fold to you and your managers, as well as employees. Your company will distinguish itself as a place where people at every level want to work, not where they have to work. 

DJ Heckes, Author & CEO 
EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Full BRAIN Marketing
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 

Share  Bookmark this on Delicious

The importance of becoming a company that develops a culture where employers can manage and grow their business through their employees is becoming a necessity in today’s hyper competitive environment. 

Creating a high performance team takes focus, drive and a lot of work, but the pay off is valuable to a business. Having internal working relationships that work is key. Working relationships that do work are characterized by open and respectful communication, accountability and trust. These three characteristics go hand in hand. 

To look at things at the 32,000 foot level for your business, these three areas make up the livelihood of a great company with great employees. 

People - The culture of your business 
This represents all people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of your product and/or service. They are an important part of the extended marketing mix. Employees and other consumers often add significant value to the total product and/or service you are offering. 

Process - The “How to” that makes you successful 
The procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which your products and/or services are consumed should be maintained in a customer relations management (CRM) program. This enables a business to document the processes that are an essential element of your overall marketing strategy. The reason: customers may be contacted systematically for different touch points needed along the closure process and after the sale or transaction to keep them coming back. 

Physical Evidence - The ability to “walk the talk” 
This is the ability and environment in which the product and/or service is delivered. This represents both tangible goods that help to communicate and perform the service and intangible experience of existing customers. It is also the ability of the business to relay that customer’s satisfaction to potential customers. 

Many companies think there is not much you can do to improve the quality of communication, accountability or trust in an organization. People either possess these qualities or they do not, right? Wrong. You can make a difference. 

The principles of working relationships are the framework within which managers and employees relate to each other on the job. Without these basic principles, people can be confused about what they should or should not be doing. There are five basic principles for working relationships. 

1. Management by Agreement – worked out systems and use systems. 
2. Management by Exception – If system does not work, bring to Management attn and figure out if modify or implement new system 
3. Guidelines for working interactions – two kinds of relationships. Manager with reporting employee or employee-to-employee       relationship. Help understand employee-to-employee relationship should be like. Work with each other without feeling like being attacked or have to call in a manager. 
4. Guidelines for effective delegation. 
5. Guidelines for effective regulation. – Communication between people is imperfect. Sometimes requirements of task can change between time delegated or completed. Have to have steps of reporting loops where you continue to keep in communication with each other about project. 

This is the beginning of having a successful communication channel within one’s company. The next step would be to have consistent weekly staff meetings with reporting looks and to have a quarterly companywide meeting to develop a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement and threats) and measure against this SWOT analysis quarterly. At EXHIB-IT! we have quarterly business meetings that allow opportunity for our staff to work on teambuilding exercises for professional growth and we also celebrate successes and share challenges along the way to measure against our original SWOT analysis. 

DJ Heckes, CEO 
EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts 
www.exhib-it.com 
Author, Full BRAIN Marketing 
www.fullbrainmarketing.com 


Share tweetmeme_url = 'http://yoururl.com';  Bookmark this on Delicious

I was out running errands the other day and went into a small locally owned children’s resell shop, where I proceeded to be ignored by three sales associates. I then returned a pair of shoes that my son refused to put on at a national chain and the clerk treated me like I was an inconvenience. Do you know what store had the friendliest staff? It was Walmart! They hire a person just to stand by the door and welcome you into the store. Now let’s be honest- this person is sometimes the most unhappy person in the store, but you have to give props to the big company for trying to make their customers feel welcome and want to come back. 

Back at the resell store I was ready to take my clothes back and forget the store credit. I knew plenty of people, or organizations that would be happy to take the clothing off my hands for me, and I would have been happy when I left. But I stayed at the shop. 

I left the shoe store with a cheerful “have a great day” to the clerk but still found myself walking out the door wondering why people can’t be more friendly. Returns are a part of life, just like sales; don’t you want me to be happy with the product that you purchased? Do I really deserve to be treated like an inconvenience? I found myself disappointed that I still had a gift card to that store. I would much rather buy my shoes somewhere else. 

So the question is what - is customer service worth these days? Are we willing to pay more money or go a little out of our way to be treated better? At the end of the day does the friendliest and most effective company come out on top? 

Thankfully, I work for a company where we are instilled that we don’t want a one time customer- we want a lifetime client. We strive continually to be sure that anyone who meets an employee of EXHIB-IT! Feels that we did everything in our power to meet their needs and ensure their success. 

Here is what some of our clients have said: 

"The banner was very nice, very perfect, very simple to use-I am quite pleased! You all, and Dallas, were great to work with. Your reputation for responsive, caring and quality work is clearly based on your performance. Thank you once again" 
Patricia Knighten Time Solutions LLC

 "I am thrilled with all the artwork, and with the early delivery of the items. I was able to save money in transporting these to the conference in Indianapolis that started today. I appreciate what you have done for us again, and especially the efforts of Dallas." Deborah Johnson Marketing Coordinator Geobrugg North America, LLC 

"Thank you for the excellent customer service I received. Being out of town and disconnected with my company and the staff making decisions at this late date could have been a problem, but working with the staff at EXHIB-IT! gives me peace of mind because I know you are on top of my order. I appreciate your assistance!!
Shirley Alderson Pacific Northwest National Laboratories